RIM Offers auto-solution to tap its messenger service

KOLKATA: The maker of Blackberry smartphones, Canada's Research In Motion (RIM) has demonstrated an auto-solution to tap its messenger services to assuage India's security concerns and is awaiting feedback from the government, a top company executive told ET.

"We've showcased the capability of an auto-interception solution for BlackBerry messenger. The government is yet to communicate its view," said Sunil Lalvani, director (enterprise sales) at RIM India. The government had earlier dismissed a manual interception solution offered by RIM for monitoring BlackBerry messenger chats.

Executives at RIM claimed the company is no longer under obligation to hand over the encryption keys to the government for accessing its corporate email services. They said that's because its corporate clients have agreed to decode corporate emails of potential rogue employees.

"There is no deadline from the government's side to allow mandatory surveillance of BlackBerry's corporate email service. Companies using RIM's encrypted communication services have assured the home ministry they will share corporate emails of rogue employees in readable format if the security agency making the request has legal authorisation, as in a warrant," said Lalvani.

However, there is still no clarity from the government on how long RIM's corporate email services customers will need to archive email transcripts.

"No company can eternally hold on to data in an email server. But the telecom department is yet to come out with an email archival policy for companies availing of encrypted communications services," the RIM executive said. Last year, the government had threatened to shut down BlackBerry's corporate email and instantmessaging services after RIM denied access to its encrypted communication services.

The government still doesn't have the technical wherewithal to decode BlackBerry corporate emails, which have much higher encryption levels than consumer emails or instant messaging. RIM has repeatedly claimed it does not have any keys to decode encrypted corporate email.